The year 2021 marks the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, a poet who, as T.S. Eliot put it, ‘divides the world with Shakespeare, there being no third’. His, like ours, was a world of moral uncertainty and political violence, all of which made not only for the agony of exile but for an ever deeper meditation on the nature of human happiness. In ‘Why Dante Matters’, John Took offers by way of three in particular of Dante’s works – the ‘Vita Nova’ as the great work of his youth, the ‘Convivio’ as the great work of his middle years and the ‘Commedia’ as the great work of his maturity – an account, not merely of Dante’s development as a poet and philosopher, but of his continuing presence to us as a guide to man’s wellbeing as man.

Author Professor John Took Published by Bloomsbury Continuum ISBN 9781472951038 EAN 9781472951038 Bic Code Cover Hardback